Hi Dave,
You do great work as I have seen a number of your threads on FChat.
Just a question on the finish. The statement above that I have highlighted seems to be a contradiction. The OEM standard is soft touch so finishing them hard touch does not seem OEM to me. Is there a reason why you have not used soft touch? I have tried a variety of soft touch paint with various degrees of success. I can achieve a good finish but the finish does not always adhere so well. If an edge gets knocked then it can lead to a breakdown of the coating.
With modern soft touch paints I would not expect them to become sticky like the OEM parts, interested in your thoughts?
Just wondered if you have tried to perfect the soft touch coating with any success?
Hello Terry,
Well, your point is well taken. I suppose one could argue that we are not 100% factory correct because if we were 100%, our coatings would fail just like the OEM. Our use of that term is due in part to our laser etching process and our graphic replication being as perfect as it possibly can be. Example, when we replicate graphics we will even replicate mistakes we find - how is that for OCD?
Also, here is another situation where one could argue we are not "factory correct" : In most cases (not all), non illuminated graphics are done by the factory with silk screen / pad printing technology (example - vent arrows on 355's). Could we do this exact? Yep, we most certainly could tool up and silk screen these graphics. But, we don't for 3 reasons as follows:
1) Each graphic would require tooling
2) That tooling takes time to produce and our laser is programmable and therefore we can replicate and produce a graphic all in one day if need be, so it's very flexible.
3) A laser etched graphic will out live a silk screened graphic by 10 fold or more.
The use of hard touch over soft touch:
So, our manufacture can produce a soft touch coating and it's very, very good. However, the OEM's used 2 types of soft touch, black and clear. In most cases, clear was used over illuminated graphic parts. Black is used on parts with no graphics or silk screened graphics. Again, in most, not all cases (understand, sub contractors do this work, not Ferrari and Ferrari uses multiple subs and they all have slightly different methods)
The issues with using a soft touch are as follows:
1) While our manufacture tells us the coatings would not fail, I would have to take their word and rely on the testing they have done. I'm not feeling the love taking this risk because if we guarantee our work (as we do) and 5 years from now the coating starts to fail, we will have many upset customers and refinishing those parts for free would put us out of business. So, it's all about risk management.
2) The economics of using a clear and black soft touch and the process that goes on before that just does not make good financial sense for a boutique service. Our services are not cheap and they would cost even more to use soft touch.
We have considered offering soft touch at a premium with no guarantee or a limited one such as 1-year but I just don't see the market for it when our hard touch coatings are extremely durable, chemical and mar resistant and the color and sheen is a near perfect match to the OEM soft touch.
In summary, I guess we could change our slogan to 98% factory correct but that would sound kind of dumb
We strive to match the OEM as close as possible with better technology than the OEM's used. The market has spoken and it seems we are setting the standard for proper refinishing and the customers have been thrilled with the outcome which I am very appreciative and humbled by
